OD&D How are your original dice holding up?

[Retreater]

I came into the hobby in the late 1980s - after these old-school color-in-numbers dice. My first set were pink gem dice - which was the only color available at the small town comic book store (the only place to buy them). They were an Armory tube (similar to what is pictured below, but I didn't get a "mega tube" until later).
I think I still have most of the dice in my "guest bucket" (a large plastic Maxwell house tub). That's in storage now because, well, guests don't come and play D&D anymore. Moreover, I can't read gem dice very well because of my vision - solid color opaques with very bold numbers are easier to read now.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

I bought my first dice in the fall of 1978, along with the 1e PHB and MM (but not the DMG because it hadn't come out yet). These were "crayon/ink the numbers yourself" dice, and they're still in active use.

In particular, I have clear & colorless d20s marked 0-9 twice, that I've inked half with black and half with red. My convention is the the red-inked numbers are 11-20.

I also, for a long time, used the convention of "Roll a d20 marked as a d10, plus a d6, to get a 1d20 result: On a 1-3 on the d6, read the d10 as "1-10" and on a 4-6 on the d6 read the d10 as "11-20"

 

[Joshua Randall]

What cheap crap we had in the 80s, or did we just play that much.

Yes and yes.

The picture you found is very representative. My original dice were like that, but worse. As you wrote, the d20 rolled like a ball, and my d6 was becoming ball-like.

On a vaguely related note: one of my earliest non-Red Box die acquisitions was a bright green d30. Why a d30? I have no idea. Anyway, one of my elementary school teachers saw me playing with it before class and was fascinated. She bought her own d30 and used it to randomly determine what day of the month to give pop-quizzes (re-rolling weekend days).

The other kids in the class were not amused at the teacher's new D&D-die-pop-quiz-technology, so I never told them where she got the idea.

 

[billd91]

These are what remain of my original dice - bought in, I believe, late 1981.

 

[David Howery]

On a vaguely related note: one of my earliest non-Red Box die acquisitions was a bright green d30. Why a d30? I have no idea.

maybe because it was one of the first non- D&D standard die you could buy? I bought one too way back in the day. Nowadays, of course, you can buy dice with all kinds of weird number/sides to them....

In particular, I have clear & colorless d20s marked 0-9 twice, that I've inked half with black and half with red. My convention is the the red-inked numbers are 11-20.

I had bunches of those back in the day, still have a few. I got rid of a bunch of the worn ones when actual D10s and D20s became available...

 

[Hex08]

I'm pretty sure my original Basic Set dice are in a landfill somewhere. I like to imagine intelligent rats are using them to play D&D.

 

[GreyLord]

I didn't get my first dice from Moldvay or from Mentzer. I can't recall if I got it from the Basic set at all. I'm thinking I did not, and those sets came later.

Of the original dice set...I have NO IDEA where they are today. Not even a clue. When I think back on when I saw them last, my mind draws a blank.

Which is funny, because I still have the varied color dice that I got from Mentzer's basic game box. I still have the ones I got from the Expert game box.

I have my first dice set that I started to play AD&D with. I have my second set as well. They aren't with my normal storage either, they are in a drawer in my bedroom, safely stored simply for nostalgia's sake. They are still in excellent condition as well.

But my original dice, as well as dice I got from other box sets (Star Frontiers, Gamma World), I don't know what happened to them. They have gone like dust in the wind from the past.

 

[el-remmen]

Here they are - a mix of dice from the Moldvay Set, a set of 2d10/d100 "Dragon Dice," and some others maybe from an Expert Set or Star Frontiers boxed set.

I keep them in a small ziplock bag in my larger dice bag to keep them from getting banged around and even more worn. The d20 is in especially bad shape, it may have even been chewed by the family dog, Samson. The 20-facing side is esp. badly worn!

 

[J.Quondam]

Here they are - a mix of dice from the Moldvay Set, a set of 2d10/d100 "Dragon Dice," and some others maybe from an Expert Set or Star Frontiers boxed set.

I keep them in a small ziplock bag in my larger dice bag to keep them from getting banged around and even more worn. The d20 is in especially bad shape, it may have even been chewed by the family dog, Samson. The 20-facing side is esp. badly worn!
View attachment 257391

I've seen 2000 year-old roman divination dice in better shape than that d20.

 

[el-remmen]

I've seen 2000 year-old roman divination dice in better shape than that d20.

I doubt any of those were chewed up by a Japanese Akita.